During the 1960’s, a counterculture arose in response to the narrow-minded lifestyle/ ideologies of the 1950’s. The reign of Sexual Liberation became a forceful revolution alongside the Civil Rights movements and the strong resistance regarding the Vietnam War. All of these pushes for social change wove open sexuality and promiscuity, civil-rights equality, and opposition to the war together into a synonymous political identity. The popularity of this political identity, however, did not abolish the open discrimination within the population on the other end of the social spectrum. This discrimination and prejudice came to a boiling point in the form of Stonewall in 1969, representing the creation of the more specific Gay Liberation movement. With this movement came the dilution of the stigma around homosexuality, othe first pride parades, and the removal of the word ‘homosexuality’ from the APA’s DSM. In the three or so years following Stonewall, various governments moved to suppress the Gay Liberation, raiding gay bars and bathhouses, arresting many members of the gay community. In response, the gay community moved to protect themselves by creating a political and social platform of committees, groups, and organizations. Within the year, the first reports of AIDs were cropping up around the world and, as it became an epidemic, these gay organizations became the centers of AIDs awareness and prevention. Essentially, the various social movements of the 1960’s, catalyzed by Stonewall, were quintessential in bringing about the Gay Liberation movement, the emergence of AIDs created a need for radical progress and drastic political/social action within the gay community that would not have happened otherwise. Unfortunately, it took the gay community several years of stuggling to get the powers of the world to recognize AIDs as a serious issue. As Kramer says in his letter in the study guide, it took Reagan seven years to say the word “AIDs” allowed. Essentially, because this disease began in a minority group that society was determined to ignore, the spread of AIDs was left to run rampant for years, taking thousands of lives in its wake. Today, millions of individuals, of all sexual identities and orientations, around the globe are infected with a disease that has no cure.